Impartial co-management to aid crop marketing

• US 20060108434A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Targeted Grain Management Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cerys Systems Inc.
• Inventors: Kallestad, Daniel Robert
• Application Number:
  US11/305,054
• Publication Number:
  US 20060108434A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 236/49.300
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 25/22 Ventilating arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: F26B 21/06 Controlling, e.g. regulating, parameters of gas supply F26B21/14 takes precedence; control in general G05
• CPC Class Codes: F26B 25/22 Controlling the drying process in dependence on liquid content of solid materials or objects
• CPC Class Codes: F26B 9/063 for drying granular material in bulk, e.g. grain bins or silos with false floor shallow layer rotary sweep drying bins F26B9/10; perforated wall silos with drying air channels in the stack F26B9/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Impartial co-management to aid crop marketing is disclosed. A crop co-manager is associated with a plurality of crop storage facilities. The crop co-manager receives facility data that indicates conditions that are associated with the respective crop storage facility. The crop co-manager selects/generates a policy to co-manage the crop storage facility in light of the facility data. A controller controls the crop storage facility according to the policy and generates data for a crop management history record. The crop management history record is associated with the crop co-manager. Limited access to the crop co-manager is available to one or more market participants in order to promote an impartial, reliable, and fraud proof crop market.

Claims

1. A co-management system for impartial co-management to aid crop marketing, the co-management system comprising:

at least one crop storage site, wherein the at least one crop storage site comprises;

a crop storage facility;

a node associated with the crop storage facility; and

a controller associated with the crop storage facility for controlling crop storage, wherein the controller is configured according to a policy; and

a crop co-manager that is arranged in communication with the at least one of the crop storage facility, the facility sensor, and the controller, wherein the crop co-manager is configured to;

obtain facility data;

transmit the policy to the controller, wherein the policy is configured according to a crop storage objective; and

record crop management history data for limited access by a market participant.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the facility data includes at least one of:

initial facility data, weather data, temperature data, relative humidity data, barometric pressure data, position data, time data, static pressure data, crop condition data, environmental condition data, crop weight data, crop heat data, crop moisture data, power consumption data, crop origin data, shipping data, ownership data, escrow data, radio frequency identification data, proactive commingling data, and trace data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy comprises:

at least one crop-conditioning algorithm configured to drive a functionality associated with the controller.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the crop management history data includes a history of at least one of:

weather, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, position, time, static pressure, crop condition, environmental condition, weight, heat, moisture, power consumption, origin, shipping, ownership, tracing, proactive commingling, radio frequency identification data, crop grade, and crop objectives.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the market participant comprises at least one of:

a crop owner, a crop storage facility manager, a financial business, an escrow business, an insurance business, a shipping business, a crop purchaser, a crop trade business, a crop exchange market, a tracking business, a weather forecast business, and a power supply business.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the crop co-manager is configured to maintain a criteria associated with crop quality by:

evaluating the facility data;

selecting a new policy setting for the controller in response to the evaluated facility data; and

communicating the new policy setting to the controller.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a security manager that is arranged in cooperation with the crop co-manager, wherein the security manager is configured to;

receive a request for access;

evaluate an access level associated with the request; and

reject requests when the evaluated access level is insufficient for the request.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the crop co-manager comprises a security manager that is arranged in cooperation with the crop market co-manager, wherein the security manager is configured to:

receive a request for access;

evaluate an access level associated with the request; and

reject requests when the evaluated access level is insufficient for the request.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the crop co-manager is further configured to receive requests from the market participant via a communication interface, wherein the communication interface comprises at least one of:

a serial communication interface, a parallel communication interface, an Ethernet interface, a twisted pair cabling interface, a wireless interface, a fiber optics interface, a power line carrier interface, a satellite interface, a dial-up interface, a web based login, a secure web based login, a virtual private network link, a hard-wired connection, a client application based login, a biometric identification login, an encrypted login, a modem based login, a dialup based login, asymmetric public key cryptography, one time pad encryption, and a security hash algorithm.

10. A computer-implemented method for impartial co-management to aid crop marketing, the method comprising:

obtaining facility data associated with the management of at least one crop storage facility;

selecting a policy associated with the facility data, wherein the policy is configured to manage the at least one crop storage facility to achieve an objective; and

generating a crop management history record, wherein the crop management history record is configured for accessibility to a market participant having an appropriate access level.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the access level comprises at least one of:

public access, customer access, and restricted access.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the facility data includes at least one of:

initial facility data, weather data, temperature data, relative humidity data, barometric pressure data, position data, time data, static pressure data, crop condition data, environmental condition data, crop weight data, crop heat data, crop moisture data, power consumption data, crop origin data, shipping data, ownership data, escrow data, radio frequency identification data, proactive commingling data, and trace data.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the policy comprises at least one crop-conditioning algorithm configured to drive a functionality associated with the controller.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the crop management history record comprises a history of at least one of:

weather, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, position, time, static pressure, crop condition, environmental condition, weight, heat, moisture, power consumption, origin, shipping, ownership, tracing, proactive commingling, escrow data, radio frequency identification data, crop grade, and crop objectives.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the market participant comprises at least one of:

a crop owner, a crop storage facility manager, a financial business, an escrow business, an insurance business, a shipping business, a crop purchaser, a crop trade business, a crop exchange market, a tracking business, a weather forecast business, and a power supply business.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a request for access to the crop management history record;

evaluating an access level associated with the request;

rejecting requests when the evaluated access level is insufficient for the request; and

accepting requests when the evaluated access level is sufficient for the request, wherein access is permitted for at least one of;

viewing the crop management history record, and inputting crop transaction data.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising interfacing the crop management history record with the market participant, wherein the communication interface comprises at least one of:

a serial communication interface, a parallel communication interface, an Ethernet interface, a twisted pair cabling interface, a wireless interface, a fiber optics interface, a power line carrier interface, a satellite interface, a dial-up interface, a biometric identification login, a web based login, a secure web based login, a virtual private network link, a hard-wired connection, a client application based login, an encrypted login, a modem based login, a dialup based login, asymmetric public key cryptography, one time pad encryption, and a security hash algorithm.

18. A system for impartial co-management to aid crop marketing, the system comprising:

a crop storage means, wherein the crop storage means is arranged to maintain a crop therein;

a node means, wherein the node means is associated with the crop storage means and configured for at least one of;

sensing conditions associated with the crop storage means and rectifying conditions associated with the crop storage means;

a controller means, wherein the controller means is associated with the crop storage means and configured to communicate with the node means according to a policy; and

a crop co-management means, wherein the crop co-management means is configured to;

obtain facility data, evaluate a policy according to the facility data, transmit the policy to the controller, and generate a crop management history record.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a security manager means, wherein the security manager means is configured to receive a request for access, evaluate an access level associated with the request, and reject requests when the evaluated access level is insufficient for the request.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising a controller security means, wherein the controller security means is configured to receive a request for access, evaluate an access level associated with the request, and reject requests when the evaluated access level is insufficient for the request.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the security manager means is arranged in at least one of:

in communication with the crop co-manager means, and as a portion of the crop co-manager means.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the controller security means is arranged in at least one of:

in communication with the controller means, and as a portion of the controller means.